Beware the Ides of March
Today marks the date of the assassination of Gaius Julius Caesar in 44 BCE, the 15th day of the Roman month of Martius, Idus Martiae. The term Ides comes from the earliest Roman calendar, said to have been created by Romulus, the mythical founder of Rome. While the calendar was displaced in the 3rd century AD by one close to the modern, the term Ides stayed in the vernacular for centuries to come. So when Shakespeare had the soothsayer (named Spurinna according to Suetonius and Plutarch) tell Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March" in 1599, he assumed that the audience knew when the Ides was.
The unfortunate day was marked by numerous omens, some mentioned by Shakespeare. A sacrificial animal was found to have no heart. During construction in Capua sponsored by Caesar, the tomb of Capys, believed to be one of the region’s founders, was uncovered with an inscription warning that the man responsible for the disturbance would be slain by his countrymen. On March 14, a king-bird carrying a laurel (sign of peace) into the Curia of Pompeii was torn apart by other birds. Livy recorded that Caesar’s wife Calpurnia dreamt that the star set upon their house by the Senate had fallen. Another version has her dream Caesar stabbed in her arms. Despite these warnings, Caesar went about his business, which involved being stabbed 23 times by the conspirators, some his friends. Et tu Brute?